Gene Patents and Public Policy

There are a number of ongoing legal actions concerning patent rights that could affect the implementation of personalized medicine, such as patents on genes or tests. In an opinion piece at The Scientist, Courtenay Brinckerhoff, a partner at Foley & Lardner, writes that "the question being debated is whether these advances are most likely to flourish within the patent system or outside of it." Do patents, she asks, encourage innovation or prevent competition? Because much of biomedical research is publicly funded, "at its heart, this debate may be more of a public policy question than a legal one," Brinckerhoff says.